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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 947 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
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Chapters
The Project................... 2
A Cry for Help...............6
A Desperate Search.......9
The Newscast..............13

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LIFE
ON E
ARTH
STAR
T

The Project
“Tarxa, don’t you have any homework?”
“This is homework, Dad. Remember that report on
Earth that everyone did last month? Well, my history
TeachBot asked us all to expand on it. We’re gathering
information online to create a Virtual Earth 2000. My
assignment is to research the wildlife.”
“Wow! That sounds pretty challenging, but you’re so
good at computer research that I’m sure you’ll do just
fine.”

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“I hope so. Right now I’ve got dozens of Web sites to

check out. This project will help younger kids understand
the past. A lot of children here on Cygnus4527 don’t
know much about what Earth was like before space was
settled. Even though that was just a few hundred years
ago, a lot has changed since then.”
Tarxa started by going to her favorite search engine
and entering the phrase “Life on Earth.” A few seconds
later, she received such a barrage of responses that she
knew she needed to focus her search. She could not possi-
bly visit the thousands of Web sites that the first search
produced.
Tarxa decided to look for information about one conti-
nent at a time, starting with Asia, which had lots of exotic
animals, including the Chinese leopard and the panda.
Obviously, she could not list every single animal, but she
could identify the primary phyla, classes, and orders.
For several hours Tarxa visited Web site after Web site,
scanning them for information that sounded promising.
After dinner Tarxa returned to some of the more interest-
ing sites to see which ones contained useful information.
One was so interesting that she bookmarked it. She really
wanted to spend an afternoon there.
On Saturday Tarxa decided to revisit the site she had
bookmarked. As she typed in the URL, her finger slipped
and she mistyped one letter. Before she could retype the
URL correctly, a Web site appeared that she had never seen
before.

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It was an odd-looking site, Tarxa thought. Like the one

she meant to study, this one was about Asian animals, but
it looked old-fashioned and outdated somehow. Still, Tarxa
thought it might have some useful information, so she
decided to explore it.
On the left side of the home page, Tarxa noticed links
for different animals; without thinking she clicked on her
favorite, the panda. To her surprise, instead of seeing pic-
tures of pandas or information about them, she found
herself in the middle of what appeared to be a chatroom.
Some sort of interactive discussion was going on:

Cyberdc:The panda will be extinct by 2100 if we

don’t do something.
BreeSec: I thought we got the pandas off the endan-
gered list in 2043.
Cyberdc:We did, but back then the problem was dif-
ferent.The bamboo, their only food, was dying as part of
its life cycle. Now it’s dying because of some bacteria.
BreeSec: So what?
Cyberdc:This germ is spreading very quickly. If we
don’t do xhjkdlksl em wpi #2js asdkfhad erjhads qwekwe

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Tarxa called her

father over. “Look at
this, Dad,” she said. “Is
this some sort of joke?
The panda population is
just fine, but these peo-
ple sound like there’s
some sort of disaster
brewing. And now I
can’t even read their
conversation. See, the
text has gone all funny.”
Tarxa’s dad peered
at the screen. “Look at the dates, Tarxa. They sound as if
2100 is in their future, but it’s 2382 now; 2100 was a long
time ago.”
Tarxa shook her head in disbelief. “Something’s
weird,” she said. “I’ll write the Webmaster and find out
what’s going on. I saw an e-mail link on the home page.”
Tarxa went back to the home page and clicked the link.
She typed a friendly message to the Webmaster and sent it
off. Her computer seemed to whir and click for a long
time; Tarxa wondered why the transmission was so slow.
Later, Tarxa forgot all about the message. She found a
site that had hundreds of pages on early Earth wildlife, so
she spent the rest of the weekend exploring that site. Soon,
she was more than halfway through her part of the project.

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A Cry for Help

A few days later, Tarxa was going through her e-mail,
when she noticed an unusual return address on one mes-
sage. It ended with “.com,” a type of domain that Tarxa
thought had disappeared centuries ago. Curious, she
opened the message, read the beginning, and laughed.
“Hey, Dad!” she called. “Remember that funny Web
site I showed you that had the discussion about pandas?
Well, the Webmaster just wrote me a reply. I had forgotten
all about it. Look at this,” she said, handing him a printout.

Date: November 11, 2068

From:Webmaster Lee
Subject: your question
To:Tarxa@cygnus.extra4527.spc

Greetings,Tarxa.You asked about the panda problem, and I shall

try to respond. Remember the bamboo problem that occurred
around the year 2000? At that time, pandas were close to extinc-
tion, because the bamboo that they ate was dying.That bamboo
dieback was part of the plant’s normal life cycle, so scientists
developed another bamboo with a different life cycle.That inven-
tion saved the pandas at the time, and soon their range included
the area you see marked on this map.
Now, however, we have a more serious problem. A powerful and
deadly bacterium has attacked the new bamboo.We have named
this microbe Bamberium terribilus. If we can’t stop it, all the
world’s bamboo will die. Since bamboo is the main food that
pandas eat, they will all surely starve.Time is running out. Can
you help?

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Tarxa said, “This makes no sense. Is this a joke? I bet

one of my friends is playing tricks on me.”
Tarxa’s dad pointed to the date. “Look at that date,
Tarxa. Somehow, that Web site you found is from the past.
It must have gotten caught in some kind of time-warp.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dad, but I’ll
take your word for it. Do you think this could be for real?”
Her dad shrugged. “It could be,” he said. “You can
probably check it out online.
It wouldn’t hurt to do a lit-
tle more looking.”
Tarxa agreed, so the next
day, she spoke to her history
TeachBot after school.
“Where can I find informa-
tion about a particular
problem on Old Earth? I’m
interested in the period
between 2000 and 2200.”
The TeachBot rolled
to the Data Module and
opened the door. Inside were
numerous small boxes. The
TeachBot punched a few buttons, and one box glowed
green and popped open. Inside the box were two rows
of shiny knowledge disks. Tarxa slid them into the disk
reader, typed in “panda-bamberium graph” and waited.

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The machine began to whir, at first slowly and then

faster. Suddenly the whirring stopped and a piece of paper
slipped out of the printer. Tarxa looked at it and sighed.

The paper contained a graph, and as Tarxa studied the

date on it, she discovered that the Bamberium terribilus
was first noted in 2050, right after the new bamboo was
developed. At that point in history, the pandas were doing
rather well. Their numbers had increased tremendously
from the lowest point, in 2010. Then, in 2060, the panda
population started to decline again. Soon it was entirely
gone. They were extinct by 2100!
Tarxa felt an overwhelming sadness at first. Then she
clapped her hands to her head and cried, “Hey, wait a
minute! We have lots of pandas today, so they couldn’t
have become extinct in 2100. What happened?”

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A Desperate Search
Tarxa looked at the graph again. This time
she noticed an interesting detail, one she had
overlooked before. The Bamberium terribilus
had certainly multiplied quickly, but
only up to a point. In 2120 it was very
widespread, but by 2130 it was gone.
What had happened to the bacteria?
Tarxa went back to the cabinet and
typed “bamberium terribilus AND 2120 AND
news.” She waited impatiently as the
machine searched for information. When
the data appeared, she scanned it quickly.
She learned that scientists all over Old Earth
were trying to find a way to overcome this
bacterium. They had identified one
compound, XTR-412, that looked
promising.
Tarxa wanted to know whether
this compound had worked, so she
now typed “bamberium terribilus AND
2121 AND news.” She saw one report
that mentioned the name XTR-412
again. Scientists were still looking
at it as a possible solution to the
Bamberium problem.

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Tarxa could have stayed at the Data Module for hours,

but her scheduler buzzed. Glancing down, she realized
that it was time to go home. It was her night to cook, so
she couldn’t be late.
After dinner that night, she told her father what she
had learned so far.
“I’m guessing that some major breakthrough occurred
in the 2120s,” she said. “All I have to do is find out what
it was. I’m going back to the Data Module tomorrow and
see what I can learn.”
Her father smiled. “I like the way you’ve tackled this,”
he said. “Just remember not to declare victory too soon.
Make sure you’ve learned
everything important before
you stop searching. And if
I can help in any way, just
ask.”
“Thanks, Dad,” said
Tarxa. “I refuse to give
up on this!”

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The next day Tarxa

was back at the Data
bamberium terribilus
Module. She decided
to do a year-by-year AND 2122
search for news about
Bamberium terribilus; AND news
she would continue
until she learned why it
had disappeared by 2130. She typed in “bamberium terri-
bilus AND 2122 AND news.” When the data appeared,
she read it and smiled.
In 2122, scientists learned that XTR-412 was the per-
fect substance to kill Bamberium. The chemical killed the
blight every time it was applied in a laboratory setting.
There was one problem, however. When the chemical was
sprinkled on bamboo, it not only killed the bacteria, it also
shriveled the bamboo leaves.
“Oh, great!” said Tarxa. “This won’t help anyone. If
the pandas can’t eat the treated bamboo, they might as
well not have any bamboo. They’ll starve anyway.” Tarxa
was ready to give up and go home, but then she stopped
and said, “Maybe I’ll look just a little bit longer.”
This time she entered “bamberium terribilus AND
2123 AND news.” When the data came up, it looked odd.
Instead of just news stories, it included weather charts,
maps, and lists of figures. Reading this would take some
effort, but Tarxa went to work.

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As Tarxa studied the confusing data, her

excitement began to grow. In 2123, scientists had
decided that sprinkling bamboo with XTR-412
was not a good idea. Too many animals refused
to eat the plant afterward. So the scientists had
begun looking for another method of deliver-
ing the chemical.
Since bamboo requires a lot of water, the
scientists considered adding the chemical to
the water supply somehow. At first, they could
not figure out how to do this, since the bam-
boo covered so much area. Then they decided to
concentrate on the snowy mountain tops. After all,
the snow from the mountain tops melted into the
valleys below.
In early spring, several crop-dusting planes
flew low over the mountains and released
XTR-412 dust. By mid-summer, all the
bamboo in that area was free of Bamberium
terribilus. The animal population was healthy,
so the scientists decided to
widen the application area.
That, too, had succeeded, and
now the wildlife community was
raising money for a massive project.
“That’s the answer!” shouted Tarxa,
jumping to her feet. “The scientists just
needed a way to spread the chemical!”

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The Newscast
Excited now, Tarxa did a little more research. Later his-
tory showed that XTR-412 was extremely effective when it
was applied properly. One problem remained, however: the
pandas had all died out over 20 years earlier. What if the
scientists had found the answer before that happened? A
plan started to form in Tarxa’s mind.
Tarxa composed a lengthy message and sent it to
Webmaster Lee. She expected to receive a reply, but none
came back. Worried, Tarxa checked her modem to make
sure it was still working. It was, so she sent a second mes-
sage, asking if the Webmaster had received the one she had
sent earlier. Still, no reply.
Not knowing what else to do, she asked her father,
explaining what had happened so far and telling him about
the message she had sent. He listened thoughtfully.
“I think you’ve done all you can do, Tarxa,” he said.
“My guess is that the time-warp shifted somehow and no
longer allows messages back and forth.”
Tarxa was worried. “If they didn’t get my message,
though, the pandas will all die. I must get through to
them!”
“I’ll see if I can think of anything, Tarxa, but for
now, you had better get back to your virtual Old Earth
project. How long has it been since you worked on
that?”
“Oh, my gosh!” said Tarxa. “I’m way behind! Thanks
for reminding me! I’ll get right to it.”

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For the next three weeks, Tarxa worked diligently on

her Virtual Earth 2000 project. She was one of eight peo-
ple who were working on the project. She would learn
what the others had done only when the entire project
was finished.
Tarxa checked out
dozens of Web sites and
linked the best ones to a
main page. Then she sent
a draft of her work to
Kryko, the project coordi-
nator. It was Kryko’s job
to put everything into one
massive program that
would allow users to see,
hear, smell, and feel Old
Earth as it was before
2100.
The day the project
was due, all the TeachBots
were humming with
excitement. So were the younger students, who could
barely wait to experience what life used to be like on
Earth. At first, Tarxa and the other guides were bombard-
ed with questions, but within a few minutes, all the users
had mastered the basic functions. Soon, the room was
quiet, except for the hum of the computers and the

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delighted giggles and exclamations of the students. By the

end of the day, everyone agreed that the project had been
a great success.
The next day, the parents of the students who had
created the program were invited in to experience it for
themselves. Tarxa’s father was
looking forward to the event,
since he knew how hard his
daughter had worked.
He sat at the controls for
more than an hour, surround-
ed by the sights, sounds, and
feelings of Old Earth. He
grinned from the time he sat
down until the moment he
pulled off his helmet.
“Well, Tarxa, you should
be very proud of yourself.
That was a wonderful show.
How nice to see that your
panda project worked, too.”
Tarxa was puzzled. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Didn’t you see the newscast from 2068?” asked Dad.
“No,” she answered. “I haven’t used the program yet.
What does it say?”
“See for yourself,” said Dad, handing her the helmet.
“Check out the media module for 2068.”

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Tarxa put on a helmet and found herself in a room

filled with old-fashioned furniture. Somewhere in the back-
ground, she heard music playing, and she thought she
smelled some sort of spicy apple dish. Looking around, she
noticed a glowing screen. A man’s face appeared on the
screen, and behind him was a picture of a panda. Tarxa
turned up the sound.“This just in from China. We’ve
learned that the bamberium threat is over; scientists have
discovered a new method of applying XTR-412. Appar-
ently, the team from Asia received instructions via e-mail
from an unknown source. The return address, cygnus-
something, is not a name on any known domain registry.
At first, the team
thought the mes-
News from China
sage was a hoax,
but it turned out
to contain the
crucial information
they needed. So
far, scientists have
been unable to
respond to the
sender.”
Tarxa laughed out loud. She took off her helmet and
hugged her dad.
“So your message did get through,” he said.
“I guess so,” said Tarxa. “I only hope those scientists
keep trying to reply. I’d love to hear more from them.”

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Think and Respond

1 Why do you think the author divided this story into
chapters?
2 What fact does Tarxa find out about the problem
with the new type of bamboo? What is her opinion
about the message she receives?
3 What is the main conflict of this story, and when
do readers learn how it is resolved?
4 Tarxa’s father says that she is good at computer
research. What details from the story make you
agree or disagree with his claim?
5 Compare “A Message in Cybertime” to another
futuristic or science fiction story you have read.
How are the two stories alike? How are they
different?
6 Would you choose to go to school in the future
instead of now? Why or why not?

Birds of the Past Study one of the

following extinct birds and determine what
caused its extinction: dodo, great auk,
passenger pigeon, heath hen. What conclusions can
you draw about the effect of humans on wildlife?
Present your results to the class.

School-Home Connection Retell this story

to someone at home. Then discuss the vision of
future life that it portrays. Share your visions of life at
home and at school in the year 2382.